The impact of a school-based life skills intervention in Ugandan secondary schools: perspectives of teachers and students

ABSTRACT

The evaluation of psychosocial interventions in low income countries requires focus on cultural appropriateness, implementation, and the experiences of participants. This nested qualitative study follows a previous controlled trial that reported positive outcomes for students participating in the Living Well life skills intervention. The current study investigated how participants experienced and perceived the intervention, through semi-structured interviews with 6 students and 5 teachers, from 3 schools in different regions of Uganda. The themes that emerged supported previous findings regarding the social, emotional and behavioural benefits of the intervention. In addition, all of the teachers and some students also spoke positively about the implementation of new pedagogical approaches. A number of socio-cultural challenges remain and further research is required to inform the development of school-based interventions that are culturally-appropriate, context-specific and focussed on capacity building and partnership.

KEYWORDS:

• Uganda
• life skills
• teachers
• pedagogy
• intervention

Acknowledgments

Sincere gratitude to Fields of Life staff, in particular Nabiwafu Sarah and Bernard Masaba; to Scott and Anne Brown; and to all the schools who have completed the Living Well programme, especially the teachers interviewed for this study that now carry the intervention forward to other schools.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.